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Thread: Las Vegas strippers become employees

  1. #1
    Kaylinn
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    Angry Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Very very bad.


    The state Supreme Court handed a victory Thursday to an lawyer who wants strippers classified as club employees and paid wages by the owners of clubs where they work.

    If a class-action lawsuit succeeds, it will allow dancers to keep their tips and receive wages, Brearcliffe said. Clubs will have to raise revenue through higher entrance fees, drink prices and other means if his law firm persuades a judge to prohibit the independent contractor arrangement, he said


    BULLSHIT!!!
    We won't keep our tips. They will not make up for the loss by raising drink prices. They will make up for it by taking half or MORE of everything we make! They will impose fines out the ass for every stupid little thing.

    oh..this burns me up. I would retire from dacing permenantly before I became an employee. If I am approached for this lawsuit, I will opt out for sure. I hope enough girls realize what a mistake this is. I have a feeling that only the low end dancers who barely make enough to srvive think this is a good thing. Most of us know how very bad this would be.

  2. #2
    Featured Member kikiwiki's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    That's fine. So no more house fee AND we get paid AND our tips? Sounds good to me, let me read tthe article,lol.

    SO after reading, HELL NO. Give up my freedom to work whenever I want??? Report ALL my tips??? No thank you...

    This might work in one of those hole in the wall SC's where girls make singles but this isn't going to fly with girls in the nicer clubs where we're getting 4-500/hour.
    Last edited by kikiwiki; 02-05-2008 at 02:06 PM. Reason: I finally read the article...
    "Where there is love there is life"-Mahatma Gandhi

    "Be The Best, F!ck The Rest"- P.P.


  3. #3
    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    I don't understand...who started this movement? It obviously wasn't the strippers or the club owners.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Brooklynn06's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    I currently work at a club where we make a weekly pay check, and keep all of our tips. The only thing we're required to do it tip the DJ, and pay your bar tab (if you have one). I personally, love it!

  5. #5
    Kaylinn
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Quote Originally Posted by Emily View Post
    I don't understand...who started this movement? It obviously wasn't the strippers or the club owners.
    Some lawyer who thought it was a good idea. He's currently looking for strppers in vegas to file he class action suit.

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    God/dess LuckyOne's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    WOw, that doesn't sound good. I loved the freedom we have to come and go as we please...

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Quote Originally Posted by Kaylinn View Post
    Some lawyer who thought it was a good idea. He's currently looking for strppers in vegas to file he class action suit.
    Good luck finding willing girls.


    Oh wait, there's a lot of retarded strippers. I hope word of mouth against this crap gets around town faster than that lawyer...

  8. #8
    Veteran Member Dj Captain Rob's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    I hate to be the one to say this but those dancers are SCREWED! The clubs will counter this in only one way.

    They will take 100% of your VIP/Champ Room dance money, pay you an hourly of the min tip wage hourly. As employees they can tell you to work from the start of your shift to the end (no ten cig breaks, sitting on ass for an hour waiting for next set...etc), they can now schedule you (remember those shifts you avoided because they suck?? now you are forced to work them)..
    As "employees" you will have to pay taxes, and being a "tipped" profession will have to claim a % of your tips. The worst for you is going to be the doing VIPS/Champs for free!!! Clubs will have to take out comp or disablity insurance, but that is small potatoes compared to what they will make off the vip rooms. Whoever started that really didnt think it through, id love to read the case document if it was a high court case. If anyone has the link pls post it. I was not aware the superior court was hearing another SOB case or maybe Nevada Superior was....anywho

    Cap't

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    Featured Member dangerousdiva's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    There are bulletins regarding this all over my club. Management basically has issued a gag order among all the entertainers and staff. Also, informed us to be on the look out for media and "other" persons trying to interview us about it in the club.

    Years ago in Cali I was contacted by a lawyer trying to do the same thing. I'm not worried (yet)...Vegas club owners have deep pockets and channels of influence, let's pray they use them!

    ETA
    The firm won a favorable outcome in California? Laughable! I never saw a penny of my "back house fees"
    These assholes need to go back to chasing ambulances.
    Last edited by dangerousdiva; 02-05-2008 at 04:53 PM.

  10. #10
    MsQwerty
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Bad, bad, bad! Im interested to know who pushed for that too.
    The Australian Strippers Union was pushing to do the same thing although they somehow think that they can get the clubs to pay enormous amounts in wages, more than a lot of dancers would usually make - ha yeah, sure they will...
    At least TASU appers to be a small bunch of women who very few people are interested in and who are virtually impossible to find and contact.

    Please update the story if it happens!

  11. #11
    MsQwerty
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Thats interesting. I want to ask you how much they pay you but feel its a bit rude to ask, so do you make a lot in tips? Is stripping your only job? Are all the strippers full time employees?

    Quote Originally Posted by Brooklynn06 View Post
    I currently work at a club where we make a weekly pay check, and keep all of our tips. The only thing we're required to do it tip the DJ, and pay your bar tab (if you have one). I personally, love it!

  12. #12
    242_fair
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Quote Originally Posted by Dj Captain Rob View Post
    The worst for you is going to be the doing VIPS/Champs for free!!!

    When hell freezes over. Clearly no stripper is going to sell those rooms if she is not getting paid.

  13. #13
    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Yall remember the member livenudegirlsunite? She had moved to Vegas after the CA lawsuits and was still preaching about how we should all sue the clubs and force them to make us all employees. Perhaps she and friends had something to do with this.

    It's true there was a "favorable" decision in some of the CA lawsuits where the girls who were members of a class-action suit were awarded payment for house fees they'd paid. Whether they actually received those payments, I dunno. And it's widely known that after said lawsuit, CA clubs started taking even MORE of the girls' money and that the nasty factor in CA clubs went way up - girls gotta do more in order to charge more, to make up for the heavy fees they pay to the clubs now.

    Same shit will happen in Vegas or any other city if these assholes win. Win being a relative term. Being stripper employees may work in podunk towns/clubs, but it will NEVER work in cities.

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

  14. #14
    MsQwerty
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Quote Originally Posted by Bridgette View Post
    Same shit will happen in Vegas or any other city if these assholes win. Win being a relative term. Being stripper employees may work in podunk towns/clubs, but it will NEVER work in cities.
    Yep, thats the worst part. And if it starts happening over there it wil happen here too.
    But lets just hope it all flops and gets forgotten about!

  15. #15
    God/dess Elvia's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    I'm confused as to why you think dancers won't be able to keep their tips. Tip garnishing is illegal in most states. I think it's a step in the right direction. In my opinion, dancer's should make a wage and keep all their tips.

    For the longest time, things have just been getting more and more exploitive. If someone didn't do SOMETHING, fees would keep going up, and we'd keep less and less.

  16. #16
    AudreyLeigh
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    I got the paperwork for that CA class action suit. They had my info on file when I worked there almst 6 years ago. I only worked at the club for a couple weeks so I just threw the paperwork away. Last thing I need is to be wrapped up in that crap and then have the IRS coming after me. No thank you.

  17. #17
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    One of the busiest clubs in Denver with the biggest roster of girls actually employs all thier bar workers including the entertainers... Believe it or not, it actually works out really well.

    All employees are paid a server's salary, $2.13 an hour. Just like a server, you sign a little piece of paper that states that the club has informed you that, and that you are going to, claim all your tips... and just like a server, you lied through your teeth. At the end of my shift, the club collected the taxes on the tips I claimed, they did set a minimum of $42 (I think they've since raised it to $52) but you could claim and pay more if you choose to... I got a measly little check every two weeks, and a couple hundred dollars back from Uncle Sam every tax season. After paying taxes and tipping out, I parted with about 10%-20% of my earnings every night....

  18. #18
    Veteran Member RebeccaSolidarity's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Huh...

    I dunno if this would be good or bad one way or the other. I guess it would depend entirely on how committed to enforcement the state courts are and, if it passed, how quickly a strong labour union appeared. Because labour unions -are- good at one thing and that one thing is usually establishing base wages that are higher than minimum wage along with health benefits and so forth.

    A few months ago I would have supported this one hundred percent, but lately I have come to believe that the better solution is somewhere in the middle. Basically establish stronger independent contractor rights/etc for the dancers, and establish the service staff as actual staff. In other words, the DJ and the bouncers and bartenders make an hourly wage because they are employees of the club and the dancers do not have to tip-out to anyone at the end of the night.

    Or something.

    I dunno. This is still an area of sexuality work in which I have not done much organizational research. So I probably have no idea what I am talking about, ha. But I had to at least put in a couple cents or else my IWW-690 delegate would spank me or something.

    It can be difficult to make a recently single man pay for sex when he knows that a quick trip to the local watering hole would secure at least one hard drunken tumble for far less cash. It is even more difficult when he is something of a dead ringer for James Bond as played by Daniel Craig and possesses the sort of awkard charm and confidence that brands a man like him as a lady killer.

    - Daisy Loveless, Serving Lunch Weblog

  19. #19
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Quote Originally Posted by Elvia View Post
    I'm confused as to why you think dancers won't be able to keep their tips. Tip garnishing is illegal in most states. I think it's a step in the right direction. In my opinion, dancer's should make a wage and keep all their tips.
    Well, Elvia, here's what they do: They state that the money a customer pays for a table/lap dance or a VIP is a fee charged by the club and that dancers are hired and paid by the club to perform that work for the club. Therefore, what is paid by the customer is not a tip, it is a straight up club charge. They can still tip, of course, but that would be anything given to the dancer above and beyond the dance price. This is the way things work at most Deja Vu clubs, and most clubs in California, where the dancer only keeps a percentage of the price of a dance.

    You know how you go to the spa and pay a massage therapist $70 and she probably gets $25-$30 for the hour? Or pay $20 for a manicure? The tip you throw her is just that, a tip, but the fee for the massage is collected by the spa.

    Those of you who think this would work out well for dancers, think again, and consider how things work in CA compared to other places with flat house fees. Think about the resources of the clubs and then think about the bottomless labor pool of strippers. Think on that hard. It would require actual labor reform and not simply a change from IC to employee status to improve anything positively for strippers.

  20. #20
    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    K, let me rephrase my previous statement. Having strippers as employees will only work for THE STRIPPERS in 1 of 2 possible scenarios:

    1. Clubs are held accountable by law for what goes on inside club walls, not just the strippers. Clubs are also held responsible and accountable by law for their labor handling and accounting practices. Considering the shift in local laws over recent years to remove much of the accountability for what goes on in stripclubs from the owners and place the burden on the dancers, I'd say FAT CHANCE of this happening.

    2. Clubs willingly (ie, not by being forced) do the right thing and hire us as tipped employees and let us keep all of our tips. As we all know, in the vast majority of cases this is simply not gonna happen.

    Otherwise, clubs are going to abuse the situation, just like they do now, and keep as much of our money as possible while doing just enough legally to keep their own asses covered. Most clubs will take all customer money and just pay us a crap hourly wage, MAYBE with some crap commission on sales - kinda like what happens at Lusty Lady and Deja Vu clubs.

    The only dancers this arrangement will benefit is the girls on the low end who can't sell. The rest of us will basically wind up subsidizing their wages - those of us who still hang around that is.



    Furthermore, to expand on what Susan said about dance prices being claimed as club charges so clubs can take most of the money. Sure, customers can still tip the girls on top of the dance price. But that will mean the customers will expect MORE for their "dance" if they're going to pay more. This is why CA clubs have become so dirty in general and why it's so hard for most CA dancers to make any kind of decent living as DANCERS.

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

  21. #21
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    The clubs will find a way to creatively get around the law, if passed, to allow a similar amount of money to flow to the girls. This won't derail the business

    In Anchorage that is how things work. When I worked there we claimed a certain amount each night. Then that amount was $109, and it could get as low as $75. Then we were paid twice a month which if you worked full time amounted to around $250 each pay period. This enabled dancers to file a W-2 and get a tax refund as an employee. We all claimed the same amount, so girls making $500 in a night will not claim any more earnings than $109. In other words the clubs will use a bad nights earnings as the norm for what dancers claim and pay taxes on each night. Part of that payout will go towards dancer paychecks and part of the money will be tip out money to the staff.

    You can't compare this scenario to us getting paid base pay in small Upper Midwest clubs. In the small clubs only 5-6 girls work a week, and $5 typically comes out of each dance that goes towards the $300-$400 weekly base pay. In the cases where girls don't sell enough dances to cover the pay, the slot machines in the clubs and the bar covers the difference. Small town club owners just work on a smaller profit margin. Big city clubs will shut down if forced to make those kinds of margins.

    In Nevada, many of the girls don't even live there to receive their checks. You are not dealing with a strictly house girl scenario. We'll see how it all plays out.

  22. #22
    Kaylinn
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    A lot of girls don't even live here, they fly in from all over the country to work here. If we are employees, they can impose schedules. how would that work out for the girls who fly in?

    OK..so what I see happening is that the high earners bounce out because they won't want to deal with this crap. The girls who fly in will stay in their own state to work.

    What's left out here are the low earners or girls who think a min. wage + tips paycheck is ok. Business suffers greatly because clubs can't make enough money because they got strippers who can't sell for shit. Drink and cover charge prices skyrocket. Vegas strip clubs become a dried up has been place. Escort services skyrocket.

    There is not a snowballs chance in hell that the clubs will let us keep our money plus pay a salary. It can't happen. Where will they recoup their losses from? Where will they get the money to pay wages? Drink prices are already$9-$14 per drink. Cover charges are already $30. How much higher can they raise those prices to cover their expences? Not much higher...or else people will stop comming in. People just cant afford it and who really wants to pay $20 for a beer?
    They will take our money. They will have to. Maybe only 50% of lapdances and VIPs, maybe ( probably) more. Vegas strip club owners don't give a rats ass abotu the dancers. They only care about increasing their own profits. They will pay us the minimum allowed by law and then impose schedules, take half or more of our money, plus they will come up with all kinds of reciculouis fines. 5 minutes late for shift? Fine. Late for or miss stage? fine. Not on the floor enough? To long of a break? to many breaks?
    You will be an employee that must do as they say.

    Oh...what if you want to work more than 8 hours? What if you have a customer in VIP who wants to extend but it will take you into overtime? You think the club wants to pay overitme? Hell no. That's more out of their pocket.


    Minimum wage + crappy medical benefits is NOT worth it. Not even close. Not fo Vegas. Maybe in a small town where earnings are much lower...but not for Vegas. We can do soo much better on our own.

    Nothing good can come of this.

    On the bright side....I hope that enough dancers out here are smart enough to realize how detrimential this can be. They can't file a class action lawsuit without enough strippers going for it. I hope the girls here are smart enough to know how stupid this is and don't sign the lawsuit.

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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    women are allowed to leave the kitchen now?

  24. #24
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Your pay always comes out of money you as the dancer pays the club. It is that way in small clubs and big ones.

    This situation MAY end up lessening the amount of dancers who travel to LV to work.

  25. #25
    Senior Member Brooklynn06's Avatar
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    Default Re: Las Vegas strippers become employees

    Quote Originally Posted by MsQwerty View Post
    Thats interesting. I want to ask you how much they pay you but feel its a bit rude to ask, so do you make a lot in tips? Is stripping your only job? Are all the strippers full time employees?
    Tip wise, yes. Actually, 2 of our 3 clubs pay an hourly wage. It deffinetly makes it easier when it comes to tax time.

    Stripping is my only job, and I say I work part time b/c I usually work 2-3 shifts a week. I can't work anymore than that b/c we have a lot of girls and there's a set limit on the number of girls per shift.

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